Zion-Benton talks set to resume Friday as strike continues

Representatives of striking Zion-Benton High School District 126 teachers and staff are scheduled to resume contract talks with district officials at 9 a.m. Friday, a union official said this evening.

Negotiations will resume at 9 a.m. Friday in the administrative offices of North Point Marina in Winthrop Harbor, according to Michael McGue, president of the Lake County Federation of Teachers.

The strike will continue, with picketing outside the two high school buildings starting at 7 a.m. and continue until a tentative agreement is reached, he said.

After negotiations ended at about 3:30 a.m. today, the union had asked to resume talks at 3 p.m. after the strike shut the district’s two high schools.

Earlier today, Michelle Standridge, field services director for Illinois Federation of Teachers, said that the talks that lasted until early this morning between the district and Local 504 were “productive,” but “We still have some hurdles.”

The school district’s lawyer, Anthony Ficarelli, agreed that some progress was made in the discussion. He added that the school board team asked the union to keep going, but union said it was getting too late to continue the talks.

Ficarelli said there were “some breakthroughs,” but would not go into detail.

“We want to meet,” Ficarelli said. “We want to keep forging forward until we reach an agreement and the kids can go back to school.”

“I hope they respond to the offer for this meeting,” Standridge said. “We want to get the kids back to school.”

About 2,800 high school students in the far north suburbs have the day off because of the strike, which teachers had threatened could come with the New Year.

The district’s two schools — Benton Township High School and New Tech High — cover Zion, Beach Park, Winthrop Harbor, Wadsworth and unincorporated areas of Newport and Benton townships. All campus and extracurricular activities also will be halted, the district announced on its website.

The two sides had been in negotiations since April. Teachers and support staff have been working without a contract since July.

The main disputes are over how long it takes employees to reach top pay levels and the cost of health insurance, according to a union official. District officials say finances are stretched to the limit and the school board won't bend.

In an interview late last month, Ficarelli called the situation "dire financial straits." The district is operating under a deficit reduction plan ordered by the Illinois State Board of Education, he noted.

The district had a budget deficit last year, Ficarelli said. Reserves won't cover the gap, and the board's contract offer is designed to balance the budget, he said.

The board wants to put a cap on what it is currently paying for insurance, but Standridge said that would eliminate any incentive to keep rates low.

Kelly Rignier, a math teacher and secretary of the Zion-Benton Federation of Teachers, acknowledged on the picket line this morning that the economy made now a bad time for any employee to walk off a job.

But she added, “We’re not going to be able to attract and keep quality teachers with what they’ve offered.

“They want to cut our career earnings in half,” Rignier said, referring to the school board’s proposal to increase the length of time it takes a teacher to reach the top of the pay scale.

“It makes career teachers worth half as much as they were before,” added Matt Beverly, a former teacher in Fox Lake teacher, now on the staff of the Illinois Federation of Teachers.

“There’s never a good time to go on strike,” Beverly added. “But there comes a point when you realize you’re being taken advantage of and you have to strike.”

Jacquline Long, 18, a senior, was on the picket line with teachers this morning.

“We support our teachers,” she said. “Not having school is great but it’s not great if it’s because of a strike. It’s heartbreaking.”